IRS headquarters responded in 2011 that it “found no documents specifically responsive to your request.”

However, the May 14 inspector general report found that the “first Sensitive Case Report [identifying Tea Party groups] was prepared by the Technical Unit” in April of 2010.

The report’s timeline chronicles the existence of numerous 2010 emails, memoranda, and policies related to the targeting of conservative organizations.

Follow the link for PDF versions of the original FOIA request in 2010 and the IRS response in 2011. There’s a logical explanation, actually, for why the “disclosure manager” wouldn’t have been able to find anything: The people in charge of targeting conservative groups might have kept the whole thing secret and off the books, at least to the extent that a rank-and-file FOIA clerk couldn’t access the material. Only later, when the IG started digging, did the smoking guns surface. Is that what happened here? A conspiracy of silence among the tax-exempt division that was so tight not even the agency’s own disclosure agents could penetrate it? I’ll bet the FBI will be interested in that assuming the probe Holder ordered isn’t merely cosmetic. Which, let’s face it, it probably is.

Elsewhere in dubious FOIA responses to conservative requests, remember earlier this week when news broke that the EPA seemed to treat FOIA actions from green groups a bit differently from actions by a conservative group critical of the agency? The head of the EPA announced yesterday that he’s going to have the agency’s own IG look into it. FOIA abuse is a minor subplot to what’s been going on lately but that might change depending upon what that IG comes back with. While you mull all that, via the Standard, here’s Steve Miller at today’s hearing insisting that no way no how was targeting conservative groups illegal, even if it was improper. We’ll see.

Blowback

Trackbacks/Pings

Comments

The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative groups, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

There’s a logical explanation, actually, for why the “disclosure manager” wouldn’t have been able to find anything: The people in charge of targeting conservative groups might have kept the whole thing secret and off the books

Man, if that’s true people ought definitely be going to jail. That sounds like proof of intent to me. Targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny with the outright intention of suppressing speech is going to mean jail without a doubt.

Is THIS the smoking gun on Benghazi? Among many theories circulated about why Stevens was not rescued is an extreme one which claimed there was a swap in the works, the Blind Sheikh for a captured US ambassador, but the plan went awry and Stevens ended up dead.

Check out this from Atkinson:

“With U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens reported missing shortly after the Benghazi attacks began, Washington officials were operating under a possible hostage scenario at the outset,” Attkisson’s report reads. “Yet deployment of the counterterrorism experts on the FEST was ruled out from the start.”

AP, there’s actual audio of this shmuck, during today’s hearing, saying that he’s not in a position to determine if the IRS over stepped it’s bounds when asking a pro-life group what the content of their member’s prayers were!!! Folks, we’ve moved backward 300 years for religious freedom in this country.

You bet. More than any other scandal I can remember. This is about robbing opponents of the current Regime of their civil rights. There is no way in hell anything other than a completely independent investigation/prosecution will do. They are treading near a situation where very large swaths of the population may begin to un-recognize the legitimacy of the government. It’s dangerous.

I just love how these cretins simply queue up their own internal IG staff to ‘look into it’, as though that would/should be reliable. I suppose we’ll not be surprised when those IG’s come back with a ‘nothing to see here, all is well!’?

And the GOP is dragging their feet in getting independent investigators on the job? WHY?

Dear God, I hate this f*cking government, from left to right, top to bottom. Bunch of illegitimate, law-breaking, tyrannical, rent-seeking bully motherf*ckers. To hell with every last one of them.

I just love how these cretins simply queue up their own internal IG staff to ‘look into it’, as though that would/should be reliable. I suppose we’ll not be surprised when those IG’s come back with a ‘nothing to see here, all is well!’?

And the GOP is dragging their feet in getting independent investigators on the job? WHY?

Dear God, I hate this f*cking government, from left to right, top to bottom. Bunch of illegitimate, law-breaking, tyrannical, rent-seeking bully motherf*ckers. To hell with every last one of them.

Midas on May 17, 2013 at 3:36 PM

They don’t let so much as a primary school police itself. The feds insist that there has to be oversight for every single solitary thing every one does up to and including what mom packs in junior’s lunch box. But THEY on the other hand can look into their “customer service” issues just fine thank you very much.

Sometimes he knew things…sometimes he didn’t…sometimes he had notes…then he didn’t…some things were inappropriate and not illegal and sometimes he didn’t know if that was the case…Sometimes he knew who did what and then he didn’t.

Damn right. 1st Amendment rights intentionally and selectively infringed based on political persuasion by the IRS of behalf of the current Regime. It’s a civil/political rights issue on top of the immediate criminal cases that need to be prosecuted. It’s dangerous territory they’ve gone into. Punishment needs to be severe.

Oh, that’s coming. It’s an excruciating slow process– drip, drip, drip– not necessarily a bad thing when you consider that to this Administration and the IRS the steady disclosure of ever more damning revelations must feel like Chinese water torture (is that pc to say?)– but when Ways and Means and a few other House committees are done, there’ll be more than enough evidence for the targeted groups to bring civil rights violation suits against the IRS and… well, who else is what we’re finding out now.

The IRS is so anal-bureaucratic, that they think that an activity is not illegal unless there’s some specific IRS-derived regulation against it. They’v evidently never heard of the 1st and 14th Amendments.

No one at the IRS would risk their gub’mint job and pension to do something like this on their own – nevermind risking possible prosecution. These clowns trusted whoever gave them the okay, and now will burn for it. How can anyone be that stupid? Stupid enough to think you won’t be thrown under the bus…stupid enough to think people won’t eventually roll over and spill the beans on the bus driver before he runs them over. Smart power at home and abroad.

Nonideologues in the country need to decide whether they want to live in a banana republic or not.

My head is spinning from the scandals.

I’d laugh if I weren’t convinced that more truth on the IRS and on Benghazi last fall would have affected the election. Anti-Obama voting would have been up, and, I suspect, Obama turnout would have decreased even more than it did.

That doesn’t mean the sadists perverting the agency’s resources from its mission to coordinated intimidation of those they believed threatened it politically isn’t base political corruption and criminal.

SW Ohio and Northern KY has some pretty active tea party groups, some of whom got some serious jacking around. I hope nothing serious happens to these four people other than what they have coming to them by law.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

At the first Congressional hearing into the I.R.S. scandal, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel of his investigation on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin “shortly thereafter.”

It remained unclear how much the disclosure would affect the broader debate over the I.R.S.’s problems. Complaints from Tea Party groups that the I.R.S. was singling them out became public in 2012, through media accounts.

Mr. George told Treasury officials about the allegation as part of a routine briefing about ongoing investigations he would be conducting in the coming year, and he did not tell the officials of his conclusions that the targeting had been improper, he said.

Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving” the mission for May 2, 2011. She was instrumental in overriding then–chief of staff Rahm Emanuel when he opposed the Obamacare push, and she was key in steamrolling the bill to passage in 2010. Obama may rue the day, as its chaotic implementation could become the biggest political liability Democrats will face in next year’s midterm elections.

A senior Republican congressional leader tells me that he had come to trust that he could detect the real lines of authority in any White House, since he’s worked for five presidents. “But this one baffles me,” he says. “I do know that when I ask Obama for something, there is often no answer. But when I ask Valerie Jarrett, there’s always an answer or something happens.”

No one doubts that President Obama has the White House management structure he wants; he has populated it with trusted aides such as Jarrett whose loyalty he can count on. But it’s increasingly clear that this structure — supported by functionaries who are often highly partisan and careless — hasn’t served the country well and hasn’t received sufficient scrutiny from the media. That’s why many liberals are openly expressing concern over the “mini-Politburo” at the White House — the small number of people who have centralized White House decision-making.

IRS agent calling into Hannity Radio…says CNN is always on in the break room.

Talking about the violation of the Hatch Act.

Have you seen people targeted – Hannity

Not in my dept. But management knew what was going on – Caller

When people are repeatedly being audited they are being targeted and it’s illegal – Caller

Don’t tell me the IRS is non-partisan…It is anything but. – Caller

workingclass artist on May 17, 2013 at 3:58 PM

The whole CNN on in the break room thing got me thinking.

Could a group file a FOIA request to get the internet browsing histories of all IRS employees or even just the Cincinatti office? It would be interesting to compare the number of visits to HuffPo, Think Progress, etc. vs the number of visits to Hot Air, Drudge, Breitbart, etc.

Methinks that this should be within our rights to have access to this information since a release of the number of outgoing hits to websites from government computers doesn’t release any private data, etc.

How did we find out about the SEC looking at adult content all day? We should definitely be attempting to find out the internet browsing histories of the folks at IRS offices given their overwhelming support of one political party with their donations.

This Administration hears no evil and sees no evil. They only perpetrate and embody it.

After all the Constitutional violations and illegal acts, including election malfeasance and wholesale treason by all responsible parties are fully investigated and prosecuted, perhaps we can begin to rebuild. I am speaking of the lengthy list of scandals and illegalities we already know about and those yet to be uncovered. That’s obviously going to take a very long time. /Yeah, I know I’m dreaming.

But when even the left and media (I repeat myself) begin to ask questions and take notice, it is clear they’ve overplayed their hand in a mighty way. They are imploding before our eyes.

Maybe we’ll even eventually see all of O’s personal, secreted docs? I only partially jest. . .

Is it even possible to reestablish the rule of law in this country? I’d like to think so but I’m not so sure any more.

They don’t let so much as a primary school police itself. The feds insist that there has to be oversight for every single solitary thing every one does up to and including what mom packs in junior’s lunch box. But THEY on the other hand can look into their “customer service” issues just fine thank you very much.